It also leaves little room for large groups like families to buy a lot of tickets early at a sane price. I say let the free market decide. If scalpers are buying up all the tickets, it was priced too low, and if the scalpers couldn't sell all the tickets, then frankly the show wouldn't have sold them either, and did sell more because of the scalpers, so the venue has little to complain about.

That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard, and I get to weigh in because I'm a gigging musician as well.

If a family member can't get all the tickets for their group, then that really sucks ass.

Secondly, if the venue looks empty, then that's because the scalper couldn't sell all the tickets in the first place, which means the venue actually sold more than they would have anyway, so they have little to complain about.

I don't think you SHOULD have any legal say about what I do with my tickets I purchase; they're mine. This sets an AWFUL precedent.

my father-in-law was nearly killed by one of these acceleration events and he's not even close to elderly. he was sitting at a stop sign waiting for a train to pass when the car inexplicably accelerates and lurched forward. he told me this story before the media broke any of theirs. he said this happened several times with this car and it wasn't a floor mat or anything like that. so I think it's idiotic to completely dismiss this as driver error.

that is foolish. my father-in-law was nearly killed by one of these acceleration events, which happened several times. he was sitting at a stop sign with his foot in the brake when the engine revved. it was NOT the floor mat.

What is the difference? They still shoot the same. They still have capability to kill. I have even seen some semi-auto rifles that are pink and have "Hello Kitty" on them. Does that make them less threatening, or less dangerous?

I'm willing to bet you don't even know what an assault rifle is. Further, I'm also willing to bet that you're going to go look it up now and quickly realize the likelihood of being killed by someone with an assault rifle (unless you're an active criminal) is far smaller than with any other normal non-automatic weapon. Why the focus on an assault rifle? Or did you really just mean to say "any threatening-looking style of fire-arm"?

What? I call bullshit. I used to be a Patent Paralegal for a prominent computer company. You can do a LOT of litigation for $50,000. So unless they are asking for an amount more than that, it's just a nuisance and that's why many of these companies have settled. And you most certainly can try to counter-sue.

Here's what a patent troll does: They go around to smaller and foreign companies, hitting them with some scary patent that *looks* like some basic technology they've been using, and threatens to sue --- or we could settle for $23,000 + future licensing fees and royalties.

The troll goes around long enough to endow their war chest, and then they go after a really big company. Which, by then, they're a little harder to defeat -- but not impossible. Just opt for litigating, then call a patent buster, and they're done. Most tech companies already have a legal team with intellectual property divisions just for this exact scenario.

#1 This administration has yet to pass a budget in 4 years. I had a great job working for the government. Directly due to this, I was told that my contracting company (the people I worked for) could not get funding to continue the contract, and so I was essentially laid off. Not only that, but no new contracts could be funded, so it made it very difficult to get work elsewhere, and dumped a lot of competition in my field. I did finally get another job, but it was for about $23,000 less. Thanks Obama.

#2 We had a child last year. I work, and my wife works. My wife gets free insurance, but adding another dependent would be $550/mo. I also got free insurance, and adding to mine would be about $420/mo. I have a friend who sells insurance, and I know I can get a better rate just getting a single policy for my son that way for about $280/mo, same level of coverage. However, he couldn't sell it to me --- due to the Obamacare laws, health insurance providers cannot sell just a single policy to a child (crazy, isn't it?) -- they must sell it to at least one parent and child. So, I thought, well, I'll just get a high-deductible plan for me, and the really good plan for him. But nope, due to Obamacare laws, the coverage has to be identical. So, thank you Obama, I'm spending more than is necessary now -- just for insurance.

#3 Due to the housing crisis (which is not Obama's fault), our house is now worth about $40,000 less than what we purchased it in 2008. So it has been this way for 4 years now, and gets worth less every year for some reason. Now, under normal circumstances, the industry would crash, and then rebuild, and the market should boom, or at least come back to where we bought. But no, Obama has had a plethora of life-support stimulus programs sustaining what should have completely failed and recovered already -- which has kept the price of housing artificially low. I can't even refinance now because the house is worth so much less. Just do something different Obama, this is killing us.

#4 Of course, my wife and I still are in the highest tax bracket, we don't qualify for or take any government subsidies, and somehow even though my income went down, our income taxes went up last year -- just paid a nice tax bill (even after having reduced bill with a house and a kid and taking more out of paycheck for taxes) -- $820.

I'm sure I can think of more, but I really don't feel like getting more pissed off right now. And I don't really think you care anyway.